Handicapping the NASA administrator race

By Jeff Foust on 2004 December 14 at 7:30 am ET

Now that Sean O’Keefe’s resignation is official, there are plenty of rumors and speculation about who will succeed him. NASA Watch has compiled a number of names, including the five people mentioned earlier as well as a couple of new candidates: Craig Steidle and Pete Worden. (Worden would seem to be an unconventional choice, particularly given his antipathy for the shuttle.)

The name that initially emerged as the leading candidate was Ronald Kadish, the retired Air Force lieutenant general. One person not supportive of Kadish, though, is Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who told Florida Today that he felt Kadish was “prone to overstatement with regard to technical advances and accomplishments” when he testified before Congress during his tenure at the Missile Defense Agency.

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) didn’t tell the Orlando Sentinel which of the potential candidates he favors to take over NASA, but he did describe what kind of person that should be: “I think we need a combination of someone who’s a visionary, and also is able to sell the vision and market it to the public.”

11 comments to Handicapping the NASA administrator race

An LA newspaper states NASA needs a new tough boss. The success of Apollo 13 in which the crew lived had hardly any impact to schedule, but Challenger and now Columbia result in 2 – 3 year downtime. NASA needs a godfather who understands that killing Astronauts is like killing cops… just bad for business.

Here’s the short list:

Bernard Kerik – tough cop that newspapers say may have connections to people associated with the mob.

Ace Ventura – only astronaut older than John Young still in service. Shot down the Red Baron. Flew over 10,000 missions on over 1,000 different aircraft in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf I and Gulf II. Rumor has it his ties to the mob have allowed him to always have the best plane. Risk taker who loves adventure.

Jimmy Hoffa – would provide a solid foundation for NASA to build from.

Michael “Mercury” Corleone – impeccable business instincts and family values. Made sure his daughter did not marry her 1st cousin.

Alexis Roland – wife of D. Duke the universalist. Fiesty hot mafia wife more commonly known as “heat”. Once called Carolyn the Hun Toon “princess” in public. Knits occasionally with Diane Vawn.

Robbie “The Earth Robber” Zubirin – ended his lawless ways after reading Farenheit 451. Has memorized the book “Woman are from Venus, Men are from Mars.”

If you remember, the Vision for Space Exploration issued by the President’s Commission stated the long term goals outlined should weather presidents, Congresses and, I would guess, NASA Administrators. So, O’Keefe’s leaving should only be a bump in the road. We hope.

How about Apollo 1? It had an impact on the schedule. The shuttle is extremely complex compared to the Apollo spacecraft which is a good reason to keep future spacecraft as simple as possible. Any new vehicle should carry only people and assume it will dock with something else to continue the mission. Single vehicle and single mission do not go together and limits mission parameters.

We also had the space race which I’m sure had an impact on the schedule.

Apollo 1 certainly affected schedule, as the godfather knows. But one must be clear regarding “future spacecraft”. Those going from orbit to planetary surfaces need to be “simple” / only cargo for the purpose of landing and/or taking off the human. But travel between planets is not so critical. In those cases more cargo may mean more redundancy and contigency, like what really saved Apollo 13.
Focusing now on increasing reliability in Earth to LEO and back human transfer will help Mars up and down transfer in the future. The key to human space flight, believe it or not, is still just getting up and down from Earth orbit, safely and cheaply. Forget the moon and Mars for a while, it will all fall in place. Forget the existing Apollo schedule rush culture. Develop getting to and from LEO cheap and much safer. It will provide the rosetta stone both now and later.

Look more closely at what Rutan may have said. You can have multiple companies make the rocket, and multiple companies make the transport module. Then if one rocket fails, their company gets a pink slip for a while. Hopefully the bail-out system in the module keeps the passengers alive, or maybe that company gets a pink slip for a while as well. In the meantime, the other rocket and module companies are still in business, all working together…well the low bidders get most of the market, but business continues to and from LEO. No more 2 – 3 year shutdowns. Don Corleone would be pleased. Maybe even the less extreme sanctity of lifers, also the kantians, aristotilians, and most importantly, the ever-happy utilitarians. O’Keefe stated yesterday in his interview with Frank Sietzen Jr. a lack of consensus does not bother him. “No, that’s fine. It’s part of the deliberative democratic process.” You can’t solve everyone’s problems. Forget that CAIB recommendation (ASAP also after Challenger). And really, what bureaucrat even needs congress these days anyway. Just deliberately by-pass their concensus.

Toro:>>O’Keefe stated yesterday in his interview with Frank Sietzen Jr. a lack of consensus does not bother him. “No, that’s fine. It’s part of the deliberative democratic process.” You can’t solve everyone’s problems. Forget that CAIB recommendation (ASAP also after Challenger).